Already in Love
by Foolish Professional
Summary: Taichi has been distant from Yamato and Sora ever since that night of Yamato's first concert all those years ago. Now in high school, rumor has it that Taichi is now a womanizer and has his eyes set on one of Sora's new friends (minor OC) and Sora is determined to keep him away from her and humiliate him by signing him up for the the upcoming talent show for the cultural festival.
1. Rumors versus Facts

"Odaiba High calls a timeout! With five minutes left in the game, the score is tied at two all! What a way to start the season kickoff tournament! Odaiba will have possession when play resumes!" The announcer's excited voice can be heard throughout the stadium.

"Isn't it a bit overdoing it to even have a commentator at a high school soccer game?" A blond haired, blue-eyed boy wearing an Odaiba High uniform asks his friends, who are all also wearing Odaiba High uniforms.

"Well, they _are_ the defending national champs," a girl with auburn hair addresses the blond, "but, I agree." Her eyes fall upon one of the players on the field, one with wild brown hair. She looks around as if feeling uncomfortable with being there.

"Sorry that I asked you to come with me Sora…" a girl with long black hair directs the apology to her.

"No, it's okay Yui," she sighs and thinks for a moment before finishing her thought, "I just don't know what you see in the guy."

Yui blushes, but says nothing. The blond boy speaks up, "Oh come on Sora, don't be like that! Taichi is our friend, remember? You two used to be joined at the hip, but now you're saying all these mean things about him." He looks at Sora with a bit of guilt in his eyes.

"You've heard the rumors too, Yamato!" She reprimands her boyfriend for defending the boy in question, "I just don't want Yui to get hurt. Seriously, you deserve much better than a guy like that who will play with you for a little while and toss you aside like nothing."

After reaching high school the soccer star went into full bloom and grew up very nicely. He is now the resident heart throb of Odaiba High, and almost every girl at the school was infatuated with him. However, he is known to only have dated a couple of girls seriously in these past couple of years, and even then those relationships didn't last very long. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed like he was with a different girl every week which led to these rumors circulating throughout the school about his supposed promiscuity and carefree attitude when it comes to the opposite gender.

"Sora, you really believe those rumors?" Koushiro interjects, shaking his head, "you really don't have any faith in him anymore, do you? What exactly happened between you two to make you perceive him that way? In fact, you two hardly even speak to each other anymore, correct?" Koushiro pauses his thoughts for a moment, but after seeing that Sora had no intentions of responding properly to his comment, he continued, "I for one, have not seen anything that would lead me to believe that any part of these rumors are true in the slightest."

These words carve themselves into her and she doesn't know how she should respond. "Taichi told me you two used to be best friends," Yui says hesitantly, unsure of whether she is crossing any boundaries. "I don't know what happened… but, Taichi is a good person. He's kind, caring, and he goes out of his way so much to help others. So, I don't believe those rumors for a second either."

Sora grits her teeth in frustration with her friends pleas falling on deaf ears. Nothing had really happened between Taichi and her to create this distance, it just did. Nothing directly happened anyway. He had become distant shortly after her and Yamato started dating, although he is still good friends with Yamato just fine. Sora wasn't an idiot, she knew full well she essentially rejected Taichi three years ago that evening of Yamato's concert. But, he had said he wasn't mad, that it was fine, and even encouraged her to go to Yamato. Yet, here they are as third years in high school with Sora going to one of the most important soccer games of his life only because someone else begged her to. They hardly speak a word to each other anymore, and Sora can't help but feel a bit bitter about it.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLL!" The PA system echoes across the field, and half of the crowd in the stands start to give off resounding cheers. "A spectacular play by Yagami and Takamura! Odaiba High knocks out the defending national champions in round one of the tournament!"

"He did it!" They all cheered and celebrated their team's victory, everybody but Sora. Instead, she found herself staring at the boy with wild brown hair celebrating with his team on the field while trying to sort out her thoughts. What's the truth? How does she feel? Why does even thinking about Taichi make her head hurt? For now she decides to push these thoughts aside and join in on the festive atmosphere.

* * *

Sora stares out the window from her seat in the classroom in the back row. After last night's game, word has gotten around about scouts from local universities and even some from places like Tokyo and Osaka approached Taichi after the game. Sora looks over to the right in reaction to the classroom door opening. Taichi then walks in only to be swarmed by curious students, male and female alike, dying to know about any scholarship offers he received. He waves them off with a nervous smile saying something about not being able to speak about it, and they leave him alone. The girls that crowded him were a bit more reluctant, but fortunately were considerate enough to see that he didn't want to be bothered.

Sora watches him as he sits down in his seat on the right-most side of the classroom in one of the middle rows. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a book, one that Sora has seen him reading a few times before in the past few years. She supposed he was fond of that book, seeing as this is the third time he's reading it. No Longer Human. She somewhat knows what the book is about, something about feeling isolated from the rest of society. Sora can't help but wonder why Taichi reads it multiple times. Does he feel some kind of resonance with the main character? Does he also feel like he's isolated from the rest of society and can no longer understand others?

It could be just that it's a classic and an enjoyable read, supposedly. Taichi has started to become a real bookworm over the past three years. Turns out that he is actually really smart and his grades are top notch in the humanities. Math and science aren't his strong suits, but he manages to get by decently in those as well. In fact, Taichi seemed to change from the dumb jock type to quite the intellectual, although he does have dumb jock tendencies still. Who knew that stupid Taichi would ever be able to calm down and grow out of his hyperactiveness?

"Morning Taichi!" Sora's eyes shift a bit to the left to identify the source of that nauseatingly chipper voice.

"Morning Yui." Taichi smiles warmly at her as she plops down in her seat next to him.

He sets down the book as the two begin chatting and Yui begins laughing at something Taichi had said. Normally Yui is a very shy girl, but she feels comfortable around Taichi, a fact that she has confided in Sora about. It has only been a couple of months since she's transferred in, but the two have already managed to become pretty close, which is the reason the female populace at the school are resentful towards Yui.

Sora hates how close those two are as well, but for different reasons than the others. Part of her misses her friendship with Taichi and is jealous that him and Yui have become so close, and another part wants Yui far away from him so she doesn't get hurt. Although, taking into consideration what the others have said the other night, perhaps she has been too hard on him.

Sora looks at the clock. _Five minutes until homeroom starts…_ She gets up from her seat and walks over to Taichi and Yui's desks. She stands there for a moment while the two are unaware of her presence before speaking, "Um…"

Taichi is the first to notice her standing there, "Oh, good morning, Takenouchi." Sora grits her teeth; since when has Taichi ever called him by her last name? Taichi notices her shaking fists clenched in anger and asks, "Is something the matter? Do you need something?"

Taichi continuing to speak in a formal manner to her only further angers her. Something inside of Sora's brain snaps, and she forgets all about trying to make peace with him, "Meet me on the roof during lunch break, I've got a bone to pick with you." Sora immediately turns around without waiting for a response and heads back to her seat to wait for class to start. On the way back to her seat she can hear her classmates whispering about what they just witnessed.

"Whoa, what's with her? Don't tell me she's going to confess!"

"No way! That's Takenouchi, she already has Ishida!"

"Does she want both Ishida and Yagami? What a slut!"

"You guys are totally misreading the mood, she looked pissed at him! Maybe she slept with him and he didn't call back."

"Doesn't that prove my point about her being a slut?"

"Uh.. I guess you're right."

Taichi watches Sora as she heads back to her seat all the while ignoring the whispers. She is trying to act as if she isn't fazed by them, but Taichi knows that whatever hot water he was in with her now, those whispers were only going to make it harder on him later. He turns to face forward in his seat again, clicking his tongue with irritation.

"Everything alright?" Yui looks at him with a concerned look in here eyes.

He immediately smiles and waves the question off dismissively, "Totally fine, that just caught me off guard is all." Unable to completely control his facial expressions, the side of his mouth twitched angrily for a moment. Yui takes notice of this, but says nothing of it and plays along after a moment of thinking.

The bell for homeroom sounds off and the day continues as normal. Taichi studiously takes notes, placing the events of the morning completely on the backburner while Sora has a difficult time trying to concentrate. Part of her feels embarrassed, yet part of her feels angry - at her classmates and at Taichi. She manages to write down whatever the teacher is writing down on the board, but the verbal parts of the lecture go in one ear and out the other. She figures that she'll be fine if she goes over the notes later with a sincere attempt to retain the information.

Finally, the bell signaling the start of the lunch break sounds off. Sora is one of the first to leave the classroom, eager to get away from the remnants of the judgmental whispers and gazes of her classmates that have not forgotten her forwardness with Taichi before class. She heads up to the roof and waits, leaning her back against the railing along the perimeter of the building.. Ten minutes go by, and no sign of Taichi yet. Her blood begins to heat up, and her frustration levels start to exponentially increase. She stares down the door as if it had said something nasty about her mother. Finally, three minutes later she sees a familiar wild-haired brunette emerge from the door to the roof.

"You're late." Sora glares at him with the intensity of the sun.

"Sorry about that, I had to go buy lunch. I didn't have the energy to make my lunch last night and I didn't have time for it this morning." He gestures to a box in his hand. In his other hand he is holding two drinks, one of which he extends his hand to offer to her.

She takes the drink, scoffing all the while. After all, it'd be rude not to take the drink. They stand in silence for a while. Sora attempts to arrange the thoughts in her head while Taichi patiently waits for her to say something. After a what felt like an hour, but in reality was only half a minute Taichi speaks up.

"So… Why did you call me out here?" Taichi only receives an irritated "tch," in response. After a brief pause, he decides to prod further, "Look, I don't know what your problem is. I don't know what I did to get on your bad side this much. I'm just trying to live my life." Taichi finds himself getting a bit worked up, but manages to calm himself after a deep breath, "So are you going to say anything, Takenouchi?"

There it is, the last push over the edge. Taichi doesn't say her surname with any venom or hostility behind it, but rather with the inflection one would use when talking to a stranger. Respectful, polite, and formal. She hates hearing such formality directed toward her from him.

"Stay away from Yui," she spits out finally. "I know your game, _Yagami,_ " unlike Taichi, Sora spits out his name like a bad hairball. The amount of hostility in her tone is enough to make her wince, "You think you can just push around all of these girls like your playthings. Tugging at their heartstrings like they're your little puppets." This isn't what she had intended to say to him at all. Instead of, "I want to be friends again," all of her resentment rushes through the floodgates of her mind and leaves in a torrential downpour from her mouth. "Yui is a nice girl, and I'll be damned if you break her heart."

At first Taichi is frozen in shock. He can't believe what he is hearing at all, but the shock quickly turns into indignation towards how he's being treated from his former best friend. "Are you done?" he spits out angrily. His eyes downcast, hiding his expression, teeth and right fist clenched in anger. He waits a few moments - gentleman to the end, "First time we've talked in over a year and this is all you have to say?" His fists stop shaking and he unclenches his teeth to look Sora in the eyes, "Even if I was interested in her, it'd be none of your business." He murmurs the next part so quietly that she can barely hear, his eyes returning to the ground, "You have no right to lecture people about breaking hearts." He makes eye contact with her once more and smiles sadly, "If that's all, I'd like to go eat my lunch. Goodbye, Takenouchi."

Sora continues to stand on the rooftop, glaring at his back as he walks through the door. She knows she's being stupid, but she can't help but become even more angry after this exchange. She walks through the door and down the steps, muttering, "Stupid Taichi, who does he think he is? Stupid Mr. Big-shot-soccer-star-thinks-he's-better-than-everyone." At the bottom of the staircase of the floor her classroom is on, a poster on the wall catches her eye.

"Odaiba High Cultural Festival Talent Show, sign up here!"

She scans the poster for a moment before a light bulb goes off in her brain. The perfect way to get back at Taichi.

* * *

"Good work everyone!" Taichi calls out to his teammates as they part ways at the end of soccer practice. Despite getting an offer from a prestigious university, he is still working hard in order to improve. The goal this year is to go to the national tournament with his team and win the whole thing after all.

"Yeah, you too Captain! Also, we can't wait to see you sing at the talent show for the cultural festival!" One of his teammates call back.

"Wait, what's that supposed to mean?" He turns to his teammate that hasn't quite finished up packing yet.

"What do you mean? Didn't you sign up? The whole school has been talking about it. Your name is on the sign up on the third floor." His teammate shrugs and slings his bag over his shoulder, finally finished with packing up.

"I never signed up for that…" Taichi murmurs. Without another word, Taichi picks up his own bags and races to the third floor to where the sign up sheet is located. The school is mostly deserted, but not locked yet as some clubs are only just finishing up their activities. He reaches his destination and there it is, his name on the list for the talent show - in Sora's handwriting. There's no way he could mistake that handwriting for anybody else's. He curses under his breath and heads home.

After dinner and washing up, Taichi plops down on to his bed face-down and reaches for his phone tiredly. All of the events today run through his mind as slideshow images and he feels anger begin to well up inside of him. Tomorrow is a Saturday, but a short day of class with no club activities. He sends a message to Koushiro and Yamato that they have to meet up tomorrow after school. Although, his message to Yamato is worded with a bit of irritation.

"Sure thing – Koushiro."

"Sure, I'm free. No band practice tomorrow, but is there any reason why? -Yamato."

"Your girlfriend is fucking crazy. -Taichi."


	2. Survive

**Sorry about the wait. This story is going to have at least another chapter. Before you read, the lyrics in this chapter belong to a song called _Survive_ by Jeremy Passion. I recommend queuing up the song to play during that part.**

* * *

Taichi sits down at his desk and opens his bag to take his book out. He flips through the pages until he finds his bookmark and his eyes begin drowsily scanning up and down, right and left on the pages. However, he finds himself unable to focus having not gotten a restful sleep the night before. His irritation with Sora prevented him from being able to relax as he attempted to sleep. He awoke this morning to find that he was clenching his teeth furiously in his sleep.

"Did you hear? Yagami signed up for the talent show at the cultural festival!"

"Really? What's he going to do? Soccer tricks I bet."

 _No Longer Human_ … A book that Taichi has read through twice before. Once during his second year of middle school, and the other during his first year of high school. Now, he once again finds himself immersed within its pages and the author's words that seemingly lash out at the reader, pulling them within his grasp.

"Didn't really peg him for a singing and dancing type."

"I know! He seems way too cool to do something like that."

The first time he read it, he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. The thoughts of the main character and the author, they seemed surreal to him. Taichi thought that no one could possibly think in such a cynical way. The second time through, Taichi was much more understanding and saw the underlying messages of what it means to be isolated and being unable to understand other human beings and life itself. But, part of the message was still unclear to him. His current readthrough feels as if the words themselves resonate with his life. Although his outlook on life and others have not degenerate to the same level as the main character in the book, Taichi feels a complete and mutual understanding between himself, Dazai, and Yozo.

"I really wonder what kind of performance he'll put on."

"Whatever it is, I can't wait to see it!"

But today Taichi just can't find himself to immerse himself in the pages like usual. The constant prattling about him and the talent show aren't helping either. He finds himself furrowing his brow in irritation upon hearing her enter the classroom and greet her friends in the class. He musters all his effort to sustain a stoic outward appearance as he barely turns his head so that his eyes would be able to meet hers if she looks at him. The contact is made, and without uttering a word Taichi expresses his knowledge of her involvement with his predicament. A smirk plasters itself onto Sora's face as she receives his message, only further irritating Taichi. Their staredown soon is interrupted the entrance of Yui.

"Good morning Taichi!" She greets him in the usual manner as she plops down into her seat beside him.

"Morning Yui," Taichi sets his book down, realizing the futility in attempting to continue to read. Yui takes note of the solemn tone in his voice.

"Is everything alright?" Taichi only responds by nodding and yawning. After a few moments Yui asks, "Is is true that you signed up for the talent show?"

Taichi makes sure to answer her in a voice only she can hear. After all, he rather not add fuel to the gossip fire. His classmates already have enough to chatter pointlessly about, after all. "Well, if you are asking if its true that I signed _myself_ up for the talent show, the answer is no."

"Are you saying someone else signed you up?" Taichi smiles in response, pleased that she is so sharp. "Who did it then?" She inquires further.

Taichi motions with his head in the general direction of Sora's seat. Yui doesn't even need to turn her head to know exactly who he is gesturing towards, but she does it instinctively.

"That doesn't surprise me one bit…" Yui murmurs, "So what are you going to do?"

"I already tried withdrawing while explaining to them the situation, but the class running the talent show told me they're having trouble getting people to sign up and supposedly I would be the saving grace of their event. I felt bad, so instead I'm having Yamato and Koushiro come over today to help out." Taichi sighs before continuing, "I don't know if Koushiro will be willing to help me, but Yamato has to considering it's his girlfriend who put me in this situation in the first place." Yui nods in agreement. Taichi's logic makes sense after all.

"Well just hang in there Taichi," she smiles sweetly at him.

At that moment the starting bell for homeroom sounds off, and classes went by uneventfully.

* * *

"Do you two know why I called you here?" Taichi decides to get right to business as soon as Yamato and Koushiro are seated in his room.

"From everything I overheard at school I would be able to infer a highly likely reason, but enlighten us anyway," Koushiro explains. Yamato grunts in annoyed confirmation and Taichi takes that as a sign to continue.

"Well, thanks to a certain crest of love bearer, I am now signed up for the talent show at the upcoming cultural festival," Taichi glares at Yamato as he mentions Yamato's girlfriend.

"Yeah, yeah no need to be mad at me. I already talked to her about it. Get to the point already will you?" Yamato wasn't annoyed with Taichi, but with the situation that his girlfriend had currently put him in as he knows exactly what Taichi's next words are. Koushiro confirms that he has heard about the events that transpired the day before.

"Well, I'm sorry to say gentleman, but I would like to enlist your help," Taichi turns to Koushiro. "You are free to decline. However," Taichi turns to Yamato before finishing his statement, "Yamato, Takenouchi is the one who signed me up for this. I hate to do this to you pal, but you're gonna help me whether you like it or not."

Yamato sighs before his expression softens, "Yeah, I know. It's only fair. I'm so annoyed with her." Yamato ponders for a bit, "Although, do you really need to call her 'Takenouchi'? You two used to be so close. I know you guys don't really talk or hang out anymore, but your friendship isn't so fragile that something like that would affect it."

Taichi merely sighs and closes his eyes. Yamato knows perfectly well exactly why Taichi and Sora don't talk very much anymore. Yamato has confronted Taichi about this before, and Taichi was completely honest with his feelings. Yamato is aware that Taichi used to, and still does have romantic feelings for Sora. In fact, all of their group knows it, including Sora. Yamato knows that Taichi has been distancing himself from her all these years on purpose. At first Sora was resistant towards it, but after a year or two she let him go, albeit reluctantly and angrily.

"Sorry," Yamato immediately apologizes. "That's not what we're here to talk about, I know. What do you want me to do?"

"I'm fine with helping out. After all, this is what friends do." Koushiro interjects.

"Thanks guys," Taichi smiles with relief, knowing that his buddies still have his back. "In short, I want you guys to help me with my performance. In other words, I need your musical talents. You play the piano, don't you Koushiro?" Koushiro nods, "I haven't decided on what exact song I'm going to sing, but with your accompaniments, I should be able to make Sora's plan to humiliate me backfire!"

Yamato chuckles, "I like the way you think, but the only unknown factor here for us is your ability to sing."

As Yamato says this the door to Taichi's room cracks open and the head of his little sister peeks out through the opening, "Believe it or not, big bro is pretty good at singing. He sings everyday in the shower!"

"Hikari! Have you been eavesdropping this whole time?" Koushiro and Yamato have never seen Taichi get so angry at his little sister. Their image of Taichi being the perfect older brother constantly doting on his little sister, perhaps to dangerous sister complex levels, shatters.

"Sorry big bro! But, now I definitely have to come to your school's cultural festival," Hikari slams the door shut while giggling and running off to her own room.

Taichi facepalms once his sister exits and sighs, "Geez, ever since she started middle school she's becoming more and more energetic… It's tiring I gotta tell ya." The two look at him with sympathy.

"Well, there's one thing that still boggles my mind about all of this," Koushiro places the conversation back on track. "Why would Sora do something like this?"

Taichi sighs one more time as Yamato places a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Remember the conversation we had at Taichi's soccer game the other evening?" Yamato waits for Koushiro to nod to continue, "well after all that, Sora told me she had every intention of making things right with Taichi, but after he called her by her last name she lost her cool."

Taichi raises an eyebrow to this new information, "What conversation are you guys talking about?"

"I'm sure you're aware of the rumors circulating about your reputation with women," Taichi grunts in annoyance to confirm Koushiro's assumption. "Sora for some reason buys into these rumors and is adamant about keeping Yui safe from you."

"Gah!" Taichi yells out while grasping his hair with both of his hands, "Damn it! Now all that nonsense she was talking about on the roof makes more sense." Taichi takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment. "I thought Sora would know me better than that." His eyes open slowly and a sad smile creeps on his face. The sad look in his eyes doesn't get unnoticed by Koushiro and Yamato.

"Taichi, do you still have feelings for her?" Yamato shoots Taichi a serious look. Taichi had approached Yamato shortly after learning of that the two of them had started dating to confess to Yamato that he had feelings for Sora. At the time, Yamato felt guilt and confusion and a small side of anger while misunderstanding the reason why Taichi decided to tell Yamato. Yamato had seen it as a challenge, but Taichi was quick to clear up the misunderstanding. Taichi, being sensible for the first time in his life, thought it'd be best if he was upfront about his feelings rather than holding them inside and building up resentment towards the newly formed couple. Anger quickly turned into appreciation, and the two came to understand each other even more. Yamato promised not to be lovey dovey with Sora while Taichi was around, and Taichi promised that Yamato that the relationship would not affect their friendship with each other.

However, that promise did not include Sora and from that day Taichi subconsciously started to distance himself from her. After a few months he noticed what was occurring, but ultimately thought it was best this way, despite Sora's efforts to keep it from happening. Not because he respected Yamato's feelings more than hers, but because he wanted to safeguard his own feelings. Taichi hasn't brought up his feelings for Yamato since that day three years ago, but it was clear something was still there within Taichi's heart.

Taichi returns Yamato's serious look and the two stare each other down for a few seconds before Taichi's expression softens and his smile becomes a bit more earnest. "I wouldn't know what to tell you, Yamato. I haven't thought about my feelings for her for a while now." He takes a deep breath as his expression reverts to its previous state, "It's just..." he struggles to find the words for a few moments. "... awkward. After not talking to her for so long, I don't know what to say to her anymore."

"Geez, you two are hopeless," Yamato smirks at his friend's confession. "Well, this has been enlightening and all, but there's a different reason you called us here right?" Yamato looks between the two before addressing Taichi again, "What's the plan?"

Taichi squeezes his chin between the forefinger and thumb of his right hand while crossing the left arm across his stomach underneath his right elbow. He closes his eyes and ponders a course of action. "There's a music practice room right? That has a piano in it? I hear that not many people use it, but I'll reserve it Monday morning anyway for after school, just in case."

"That would work for me, but don't you have soccer practice Taichi?" Koushiro inquires.

"No, since the cultural festival is so near all the athletic clubs are taking time off to help their classes and such. Despite the high hopes for our soccer team, our school basically prioritizes everything that's not sports-related." Taichi explains.

Yamato chuckles a bit, "Yeah, the soccer team being the superhuman exception, all our athletic clubs are kinda pathetic."

"Isn't Sora on the tennis team?" Koushiro raises an eyebrow accusingly.

"She's the only one that's any good. No one else is even halfway decent." Taichi interjects. The trio share a laugh for a good bit.

"So, Monday after school then." Taichi and Koushiro nod.

The three friends spend the next two hours brainstorming ideas for songs to perform and hanging out. At some point they decide to pull a prank on Taichi's poor little sister, leading to Taichi being banned from getting seconds at dinner for a week.

* * *

Yamato and Sora walk side by side towards the normally unused music room. Yamato is smiling nervously trying to quell the anger felt by the orange haired girl. His efforts continue in futility as she shows no sign of being appeased.

"I can't believe you're helping him. Whose side are you on anyway?" Sora finally pipes up after giving him the silent treatment the whole journey as they near the music room. Yamato is convinced of his girlfriend's guilt as she is the one who has been acting irrationally in the first place. But he'll never actually say that to her, of course.

"Don't you think you're being a little bit unreasonable? You're the one who got him in this mess, it's only fair that I would help him out a bit." Yamato tries to reason with Sora one more time to no avail.

Sora gets a sadistic look in her eye and smirks, "Well no matter how talented his back up is, there's no way he's capable of singing well." Yamato only laughs nervously as they arrive just outside their destination. Sora wanted to accompany Yamato to get a sneak peek of the humiliation that she brought upon Taichi.

Just outside the room music could be heard playing. A piano riff sounds out loud enough for the couple to hear. Sora moves closer to the door to hear better. The melody of the piano captivating her to the point where the voice she hears doesn't surprise her.

 _Everybody says that… if you love something let it go.  
_ _But she never came back… so I guess I'll never know._

It takes a few moments for a startling revelation to settle in her mind. "Is that Taichi?" Yamato nods slightly and Sora is taken aback. That hauntingly beautiful voice couldn't belong to Taichi, she reasons. But, her ears were not deceiving her.

 _Anticipation's killing me… inside.  
_ _Hope don't seem to let me go… and I don't know why._

 _Now I find it hard to breathe cause you were my air supply.  
_ _Used to be my sun, moon and stars, and someone stole the sky._

All of a sudden a crushing guilt falls upon the couple. They freeze in place as they analyze the double entendre for both metaphors. Japanese people love puns, but this pun was not meant for comedic relief, but rather to express heartbreak. At this point Sora can't endure her guilt anymore. She enters the room by slamming the door open, startling the two inside. She has to confirm the owner of the voice for herself.

No amount of wishing for the voice to belong to someone other than Taichi could change the reality of things, because lo and behold Taichi was indeed the one standing there singing.

"Why?" This one word is all she can manage to stammer out on the verge of tears.

* * *

 **Sorry about the cliffhanger, but my writing came to a natural stop at this point. There will be at least one more chapter and I hope to finish this before classes start for me on September 30th. Thanks for reading and let me know what you guys think!**


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